Niro (Henchmen MC Next Generation 1)

"You make it sound so romantic," I said, snorting.

"Oh, the flowers and candies, that's your thing, not mine. But growing up in this club, I've seen more than a few of you lovesick idiots go from fucking to dating to engaged to married. I know the signs. She is just waiting for you to ask her. She probably has a Pinterest board full of wedding ideas that could include everyone's various pets being part of the ceremony."

"Andi isn't like that."

"Every woman is like that."

"Every woman but you," I clarified.

"Exactly," she said, nodding. "Look. It doesn't have to be grand. I know you have all these ideas about how to ask her the right way, but none of that matters. Just ask her whenever the moment feels right. But, you know, after you've taken a shower. You're starting to smell," she added, smirking, before turning to go into the kitchen.

"Hey Hope," I called.

"Yeah?"

"That fucker who did that to your face. You give me an address and I'll make him pay."

"I handled that already," she said, giving me a proud little smile.

"Hey," I called her back again. "You want me to go after the dick who dropped the ball and allowed for that shit to happen, you let me know."

To that, her jaw got tight.

Hope wasn't someone for emotions, but there was something there, some sort of wound just under the surface, festering.

"I think I will handle this one on my own," she said. "But thanks for the offer. Now, go shower. Tell your woman you love her. And ask her to marry you already."

"You're awfully bossy about this. Who has a pot going on us?" I asked, knowing our people.

"Your father," she said, smiling, then went to get her coffee.

With that, feeling a little more reassured, though I didn't think my stomach would fully un-knot until Andi had my ring on her finger, I went ahead and showered, tried not to overthink it.

Then, just like Hope suggested would happen, one day it just felt right.

Because, through pure happenstance, we found ourselves in the woods with our dogs, Nugget, and his new sister Minnie who had come into Andi's office as a stray.

It had been touch and go for a long time. Andi had insisted on sleeping at the office on a blanket on the floor with her, making sure nothing could go wrong. After all of that, we'd decided she had to come and live with us. So we had itty bitty Nugget and Minnie who was a pitty mixed with what seemed like a basset hound.

We'd been following a path for a long time, but Minnie and Nugget had wanted to take off after a smell, so we'd been happily lost for a half-hour when we came upon it.

A very familiar stream.

With the juts of rock and the strong current.

This was the exact spot we had saved Nugget together as teenagers.

And it was just... right.

Andi was just turning back from the river as I lowered myself down on a knee.

"Oh," she said, her breath rushing out of her, eyes going immediately soft. "Yes. Yes. Absolutely. One-thousand times, yes," she said before I could even open the lid of the box.

"I didn't get to ask yet," I told her, chuckling even as that knot in my stomach finally untied.

She was going to be mine.

In a forever kind of way.

"If you weren't going to ask soon, I was going to ask you," she told me as I finally got the box top flipped open.

"Oh, Niro that's... wait..." she said, shaking her head, her brows furrowing. "Wait, this looks familiar," she said, looking up at me.

"It should," I agreed, smiling as I slipped it out of the box, slipping it on her finger, watching as she pulled it up closer to look at it.

"This is the ring from that arcade," she said, finally remembering.

"Yeah. Well, no," I said, smiling.

One summer, a bunch of our parents had decided to rent out some houses in Cape May just to get away for a long weekend.

And while they were out doing adult shit, all of us took to the boardwalk, eventually ending up spending the first night in the arcade.

Where Andi fell in love with a ring in a case at the ticket redemption counter.

It had been surprisingly nice for an arcade prize—an intricate silver band with four daisies with bright yellow centers on each side of a much larger daisy made with a fake yellow gemstone.

We'd spent the entire night at that arcade, each of us spending an ungodly amount of money trying to get enough tickets to get it.

In the end, though, they'd closed before we got enough.

And no one had wanted to go back the next night.

I did, though.

While the others slept in or went to the beach early, I got up, got dressed, and made it to that arcade at opening for the next two days.